Santex Rimar Eyeing Growth Opportunities in India
With over two decades of presence in India, Italian-Swiss textile machinery leader Santex Rimar Group is deepening its roots in the country. Divya Shetty explores how the company is not just expanding its footprint but also reinforcing the growing synergy between Italy and India in the textile industry
Santex Rimar Group, a prominent Italian-Swiss manufacturer, specialises in advanced textile machinery and sustainable industrial solutions. The company serves various sectors, including weaving, textile finishing, technical textiles, and environmental technologies. In an exclusive interview, Simone Rancan, CEO, Santex Rimar Group, shares insights into why Italy is one of the leaders in textile machinery and also how we can strengthen the Italy-India ties to achieve textile excellence.
Santex Rimar Group is present in various countries with four factories and more than 30,000 customers throughout the world to whom they offer specific solutions and services in order to become their reference point of excellence. Santex Rimar’s know-how enables them to understand and fulfil the needs of the global customers to whom they offer not only high quality machines but also a good and punctual after-sales service.
Italy’s engineering excellence
Italy is one of the few countries in the Western world that still has an important textile production sector. Rancan mentions, “It is mainly in specialised niche sectors, but it means the textile industry remains an important presence overall. This allows machinery manufacturers in Italy to maintain direct contact with end-users. And the whole textile eco-system is still present and complete, from brands to retailers, from fibre and fabric producers – right up to textile machinery producers. This is an enormous benefit in terms of R&D and in sensing market trends.”
Driving sustainable textile innovation
SantexRimar has always been a reference for the market in terms of energy consumption and sustainability. The premium quality of their projects and machines translates into lower energy consumption per kilo of textiles treated. This has the effect of reducing some negative factors for sustainability. Embracing sustainability has the healthy consequence of reducing waste material, as well as reducing energy consumption. The company has paid great attention to software developments, to enable machine performance to achieve these goals.
Santex’s green vision
“At SantexRimar Group, we believe that good practices and and eco-friendly mentality must be supported by business advantages. If we can deliver economic benefits to our customers from this eco-friendly approach, then we have achieved a double result: customers improve both profitability and sustainability,” opines Rancan. Saving water and energy have to viewed as economic advantages – not just as good practice for protecting the environment. This is the key for Santex’s serious commitment to sustainability. The company wants to make it totally attractive to their clients.
Strengthening Italy-India ties
In recent years the Indian manufacturing industry is growing strongly. Santex has already been present in India with a sales and service centre for more than 20 years. For Santex, it’s a very valuable source of information in terms exploring potential cooperations with local manufacturers. “We are sure that future opportunities will emerge for us, even if not just yet,” mentions Rancan.
Tackling industry-wide challenges
The main challenge is for Santex is the strong competition from many areas of the world, especially Asia. But Italy’s sector has been operating successfully for many decades, remaining very competitive. So the Italian textile machinery manufacturers have often adapted in the past and are continuing to do so at present.”It is important to face these challenges and learn from them to stay competitive. In fact, this is certainly something Italian textile machinery companies are very good at,” adds Rancan.
Tapping the textile trends
Digitalisation and automation have been topics on the table of the industry for quite a few years. And that’s intensified now, more than ever, with the increasing use of AI-related tools. SantexRimar has a long-established commitment to offer their clients the best market solutions for digitalisation. This requires investment in engineering, as well as cooperation with Santex’s partners in digital goods production. The company is extremely satisfied with the results achieved so far.
The level of automation is also increasing, and Santex see its clients choosing more and more to equip their machines and plants with the automation options they offer. This brings the end-user great consistency in the quality levels of the fabric produced. It also allows a reduction in the numbers of direct employees needed for these processes. This is a critical aspect, because it reduces the need for training and helps in areas with a higher rate of staff turnover.
Collaborating for shared success
When asked about what seps can Indian textile companies take to stregthen their partnership with Italy machine manufacturers, Rancan concludes, “We believe that the best route should be based on common understanding and listening to different points of view. Italian companies may already be present in other markets and can use the expertise generated by this. At the same time, the Indian companies are best suited to understand and anticipate the needs of their Indian clients. Once this knowledge is shared, a common benefit can be enjoyed by both parties. The Indian side can proceed at a faster rate, capitalising on the long experience of the Italian counterparts, while the Italian partners can have the correct approach and the best access to the very important Indian market.”
